(If you drive a car, car;) - Iâll tax the street;

As if fuel taxes and rising gas prices weren't causing enough pain at the pump, Democrats seeking to raise new revenues to support federal spending on highway maintenance are considering taxing motorists for the number of miles they drive.

The Congressional Budget Office lent credence to the idea in a detailed report released this week, saying that taxes on vehicle-miles traveled -- or VMT taxes -- would be a fair way to charge motorists for the real cost of using the nation's highways and would encourage more efficient use of the highways than fuel taxes.

"Judging from estimates of the costs of highway use, a system that charged for all such costs would have most if not all motorists paying substantially more than they do now -- perhaps several times more," the report said. "Such a system would maximize the efficiency of highway use by discouraging trips for which costs exceed benefits."

The report said VMT taxes "would create incentives for people to limit highway use to trips for which the benefits exceed the costs, thus reducing or eliminating overuse of highways and helping identify the economic value of investments in highways."

But the report also said challenges remain in trying to implement a system that included installing metering equipment in all of the nation's vehicles.

"Having the devices installed as original equipment under a mandate to vehicle manufacturers would be relatively inexpensive but could lead to a long transition; requiring vehicles to be retrofitted with the devices could be faster but much more costly, and the equipment could be more susceptible to tampering than factory-installed equipment might be."

Not everyone, however, supports VMT taxes.

"It's outrageous," said David Selig, a federal tax practitioner. "Right now because the economy of so many people who have to drive a long way to work for less money and now, because of this ridiculous proposal, they're actually going to bring home less money than ever before. Moreover, you have no reason to believe the government is actually going to use this money to repair the highways."

The CBO issued the report at the request of Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who held a hearing on transportation funding earlier this month.

The Obama administration wants to spend $556 billion over the next six years, with $468 billion of that going to federal transportation improvement projects.

Conrad noted that the fuel tax won't be enough to cover the federal deficit in highway spending. By 2021, he said, the gap is projected to be $18 billion a year.

"We have a very big problem here to deal with and we know that the reality of trust fund financing is based on the gasoline tax," Conrad said. "The gasoline tax is more and more disconnected from the reality of modern transportation, with electric cars, with hybrids, with renewable fuels, with all of the rest that is happening to change the way we transit. We've got a big problem here between the need and the funding mechanism."

It's more bullshit. Consider that the heavier the vehicle the more damage it does to the road and the more fuel it burns. The lighter more efficient vehicles do less damage and burn less fuel. The gas tax is still the best way to tax, if you can say that about a tax. The big spenders in Congress just want another huge revenue stream for their spending habit.

The marxist-leftists hate anyone living in the country. Those people have to drive great distances so its easy to punish them with high fuel prices, fuel taxes, special mileage fees etc.

The same marxist-leftist deep thinkers want high-speed rail and are spending tax money on it. Everyone knows the high-speed rail connections are all in large cities. Again, punishment to those who dare to live in "flyover country".

Liberals want you out of your cars, out of your suburban homes, away from steaks, out of your heterosexual relationships. They want you to live in the city, ride the bus, eat rice-cakes or otherwise vegan food and they would be really happy if you became homosexual.

Am I saying that most, possibly all homosexuals are liberals?

Yeah, I guess I am.

If the Israeli/Palestinian rocket duel lights off this summer fuel could become very expensive. I wonder what effect that might have on Obama's 2012 chances if fuel went to say $8.00/gallon.

The marxist-leftists hate anyone living in the country. Those people have to drive great distances so its easy to punish them with high fuel prices, fuel taxes, special mileage fees etc.

The same marxist-leftist deep thinkers want high-speed rail and are spending tax money on it. Everyone knows the high-speed rail connections are all in large cities. Again, punishment to those who dare to live in "flyover country".

Liberals want you out of your cars, out of your suburban homes, away from steaks, out of your heterosexual relationships. They want you to live in the city, ride the bus, eat rice-cakes or otherwise vegan food and they would be really happy if you became homosexual.

Am I saying that most, possibly all homosexuals are liberals?

Yeah, I guess I am.

If the Israeli/Palestinian rocket duel lights off this summer fuel could become very expensive. I wonder what effect that might have on Obama's 2012 chances if fuel went to say $8.00/gallon.

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it makes sense to research the feasability. it is already done with commercial vehicles.
how does a deep thinker such as yourself propose to pay for road upkeep if half of the cars in the us eventually become electric or some other form of energy that does not include gasoline?

it makes sense to research the feasability. it is already done with commercial vehicles.
how does a deep thinker such as yourself propose to pay for road upkeep if half of the cars in the us eventually become electric or some other form of energy that does not include gasoline?

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Why do I have to figure out how to pay for your fantasies? Its the Lefts hairbrained idea, let them figure out how to pay for it!

Electric cars? Pulleeease!

Do you really think Detroit is going to voluntarily produce the electric cars that put it out of the internal combustion business?